At what price war with Iraq?

We need to ask ourselves why the Bush administration is working so hard at selling us a war. As many have asked, why claim Iraq a sudden, immanent threat? Didn’t we give our indirect approval to Saddam Hussein’s brutal regime during the 1980s, when we turned a blind eye to his use of chemical warfare in the Iraq-Iran war because it suited the aims of the Reagan-Bush administration in its hatred of Iran?

How can our administration act as if it has just discovered such weapons of mass destruction, when we helped supply Hussein with pathogens ostensibly for “medical research” in the 1980s, when we of course knew their military purposes? The Bush-Cheney administration has spoken in a hysterical rhetoric of “immanent threat,” “axis of evil” and other inflammatory diversions, all aimed at precluding a vital question. Who stands to benefit from such a war?

It’s not at all cynical to consider the role of oil and money in all of this, for the recent manifesto on foreign policy from the White House claiming the right to preemptively attack other nations perceived as somehow hostile to the United States’ interests points us in this direction. All evidence, including the backgrounds of Bush, Cheney and several of their appointees, Cheney’s unnamed advisers in developing a national energy strategy, the gutting of environmental legislation, and countless other acts, underscores that we’ve an administration more representative of the oil industry than of the common populace.

That Iraq holds the second largest source of oil certainly makes it certainly attractive to a nation such as ours so addicted to foreign oil. But at what price and how many innocents dead? Can we really expect that our starting a war there will not spill over into other nations in the region, given the high level of tensions there over the past decades? Could such instability be part of the immoral gamble to assert the United State’s unquestionable domination over the region?

When our administration talks of a post-war Iraq, they claim a will for democratic self-determination for the Iraqi people, but a quick review of our record shows quite to the contrary, as we have typically asserted our own interests in building client states serving our needs instead of helping others determine their own futures, as we have in supporting barbarous regimes in Iran, Guatemala, El Salvador and Chile, to name but a few. How many times will we let our administration arm groups who inevitably turn into our next enemy, as Osama bin Laden, trained by the CIA, has?

We can better insure worldwide security through humanitarian efforts, diplomatic negotiations, and a true respect for democracy and self-rule. Would a devastated post-war Iraq find its infrastructure turned over to Halliburton, Exxon and Texaco, all under the aegis of foreign aid? How much money will pour from our pockets into the coffers of General Dynamics, Raytheon and Lockheed-Martin, and other major campaign donors, as they gear us up for battle?

If war with Iraq were truly such a pressing concern, would it take such marketing? Notice just how remarkably ineffective the constant drumbeat to drive the United States to war with Iraq has been, as polls show the people of the United States much more wisely cautious about entering into a war, for we know who will pay the price economically and in blood. Showing distinct contempt for what the people think, the administration has gone ahead with their war in increased bombings, of radar facilities and other military infrastructures in Iraq, positioning U.S. troops for immediate strike, and pressing onwards deaf to rational argument.

Show votes in Congress only mootly approve actions that have already begun without adequate public discussion, approval, or support. Let us fully consider the ramifications of their rushing us off to war, in a close look at who will profit, who will pay, and who will ultimately suffer. A war of aggression will only increase terrorist fervor. Write the White House and your congresspeople, vote wisely, and make your voices heard, to protest the unjustifiable violence being done in our name.

Michael Grillo is an associate professor of art at the University of Maine.